Army Burn Hall College
Army Burn Hall College is a school and college, operating along English public school lines and situated in Abbottabad, Pakistan, with separate sections for boys and girls. The girls' section is located on Mall Road near the city center while the boys' branch is in Mandian. The school was founded by missionary Fathers in 1948 and since 1977 has been run by the Pakistani Army's Education Corps.HistoryThe school was originally established in Srinagar, Kashmir by the English Mill Hill missionary Fathers. In 1948, a year after Pakistan gained independence from the British Empire, a few of the Fathers moved to Abbottabad with a handful of students and set up the school in a small building, the Abbot Hotel. The Fathers reasoned that if Pakistan was to be a successful nation, it needed men of high calibre and, since the British Empire was built by men who came from the English public school system, the Fathers replicated the same system and promoted sports as a means of character building.More buildings were added to accommodate an increasing number of students and the school came under the control of the Diocesan Board of Education, Rawalpindi. In 1956, a new school building was constructed a few miles outside the town, on the Grand Trunk road. The new building complex had sports facilities and a swimming pool. Its purpose was to provide more room for the seniors and it became known as the Senior Burn Hall, while the campus in the city center became known as the Junior Burn Hall.There were seven sports played at the school; Cricket, Hockey, Football, Basketball, Tennis, Swimming, and Athletics, with inter-house competitions between St Michaels and St Andrews(later renamed St Gabriel's). St Michael's was represented by a black shield with gold border, crossed white lance and sword. St Gabriel's was represented by a lion holding a fiery torch. In 1966 and 1967, foreign experts had come to assist in building the Tarbella Dam and their families stayed in Abbotabad. Two daughters of one of the consultants joined the school and were the first foreign girls to enroll in Senior Burn Hall. Miss Samina Manzoor and Miss Imrana Hameed later became the first Pakistani girls to join ABHC. Foreign students came from Morocco, Egypt, Somalia, Laos, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Kenya, the US and Britain.